The Tokugawa dynasty eats its own: one exile's impossible walk to confront the shogun himself.
Tadateru Matsudaira, the sixth son of Ieyasu Tokugawa, was exiled for not taking part in the attack on Osaka Castle. 10 years before his exile expired, he was attacked in a clandestine Yagyu operation believed to have been ordered by his older brother Hidetada. In order to correct his brother's true intentions, Tadateru broke the law and went all the way from Hida Province, where he was exiled, to Edo Castle. However, the Yagyu do not stop trying to kill Tadateru...
Acting
Ken Matsudaira's exhausted nobility—every step weighs centuries.
Direction
Saitō's patient siege: tension built through silence, not sword clashes.
Director
Buichi Saitō
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The real Tadateru was exiled in 1616 and died in 1683; this film's 'what if' premise rewrites history to explore Tokugawa succession paranoia. The Matsudaira name isn't coincidence—Ken Matsudaira is a descendant playing his own ancestor.
Buichi Saitō spent his career in pink films and exploitation before this late-career pivot to prestige jidaigeki; the sleazy tension of his earlier work haunts every supposedly noble frame. That creeping dread? Learned in different genres entirely.
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